'Best of all is Ann Mitchell's superb Bernarda Alba, who presides over her daughters like a malevolent mother superior. As polished and shiny as her own furniture, a husk of a woman who puts pride and honour before love and generosity, and who is so out of touch with her own heart that she ignores all the signs of the coming disaster, content to rule her house with her eyes wide shut.' It is a play about what happens to hearts when they are walled up and denied the opportunity to swell with love and happiness'.

The House of Bernarda Alba is Lorca's last and possibly finest play, completed shortly before he was murdered by Nationalist sympathisers at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Inspired by real characters and described by the author as 'a true record of village life', it is a tragic tale of frustration and explosive passions in a household of women rulled by a tyrannical mother.

Edited with invaluable student notes - a must for students of Spanish drama